EFF says it is leaving X, as “X is no longer where the fight is happening” and an X post now gets less than 3% of the views a tweet got seven years ago

After almost twenty years on the platform, EFF is logging off of X. This isn't a decision we made lightly, but it might be overdue.

Electronic Frontier Foundation 2026-04-10 Kenyatta Thomas

Context & Ripple Effects

EFF’s exit follows evidence that X’s U.S. mobile audience had already been shrinking or flat through early 2024, including an 18% year-over-year decline in U.S. daily active users. Its stated view is not simply that the service is objectionable, but that its advocacy communications no longer reach a consequential audience there.

The move also lands amid a more adversarial operating environment for X: the platform closed its Brazilian operation while keeping the service available during a dispute over legal orders, and later clashed publicly with the European Commission over reach and advertising. For a digital-rights group, those episodes make platform governance itself an important part of the communications calculus.

First-order effects

EFF will no longer use X as an active outlet after nearly two decades, shifting the organization’s public-facing advocacy distribution and community engagement elsewhere.
X loses a recognizable digital-rights participant whose departure publicly reinforces the organization’s assessment that its posts now command far less attention than they once did.

Second-order effects

Other advocacy groups and public-interest organizations may reassess whether maintaining an X presence justifies the staffing and reputational cost, especially where their work depends on reaching policymakers, journalists, and supporters.
A smaller pool of institutional accounts can further weaken the value of X as a venue for issue-based public conversation; that feedback loop matters more when the platform’s audience has already shown sustained U.S. usage weakness.

Third-order effects

If institutional exits broaden, social-platform influence may become more fragmented: organizations will need to build audiences across owned channels and multiple networks rather than treat one public feed as a default civic forum.
The pattern highlights that platform governance, regulatory conflict, and distribution reach are increasingly intertwined; X’s Brazil operational shutdown amid a court dispute shows how those risks can affect participation as well as availability.

The trend: This is one data point in the fragmentation of the public-interest communications stack, as organizations shift attention away from platforms that no longer combine reach, predictable distribution, and acceptable governance conditions.

Discussion

@eff @eff on x
After almost twenty years on the platform, EFF is logging off of X. This isn't a decision we made lightly, but it might be overdue. 🧵(1/5)
@nic_carter Nic Carter on x
@EFF no one on the planet has done more for digital inclusion than Elon Musk. X is the only remaining social platform committed to free speech. like it or not, Starlink is the biggest pro digital access technology in human history. it will bring hundreds of millions or billions o…
@curtis_yarvin Curtis Yarvin on x
The grim communist future is all around us. The orcs were only taking a breather. It's late in the day. Realize what it means when the centralized platform (X) is free and the decentralized one (Bluesky) is assimilated
@marcorandazza Marc J. Randazza on x
“We don't want to talk here because they allow other people to talk.”
@wintonark Brett Winton on x
@EFF “we are taking a principled stance against walled gardens of data, which is why we must leave this particular walled garden, and we must remain within these other walled gardens because people in those other walled gardens deserve to hear our message” suggests that people on…
@bluesky @bluesky on x
More and more organizations, publishers, and creators are abandoning legacy platforms that throttle their reach. Bluesky gives them a direct line to their audiences, without suppression or gatekeeping https://x.com/...
@ramez Ramez Naam on x
As a long time @EFF supporter, I'm disappointed to see this happening. EFF's mission isn't advanced by leaving the forum where many of the world's most influential people - including digital freedom fighters - converse. Twitter has its flaws. Leaving doesn't help EFF's mission.
@zquestz Josh Ellithorpe on x
I used to be a huge @EFF supporter, but they have changed dramatically over the years. Now they are leaving X, the primary place I would see their content, in order to support networks that are much smaller and complete ghost towns when I try to use them. Not only that, but I
@travis4nh @travis4nh on x
Don't let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya. (I donated to EFF 30 or whatever years ago during the Clipper Chip Era (had the EFF Tom Tomorrow posters on my cube wall), when they were actually libertarian, before they were skinsuited by hard leftist scolds)
@danfriedman81 Daniel Friedman on x
The @EFF is abandoning X because they say views of their posts have fallen from more than 500 million in 2018 to around 10 million last year. They imply that they are being throttled by the platform. What they aren't telling you is that their 2018 era impressions were massively
@lindaxie Linda Xie on x
@EFF As someone who has been a regular donor to the EFF over the years, this makes me sad. I think it's important to have the EFF's voice here to help educate others and provide info to those who need it
@mysk_co @mysk_co on x
We saw many known users take this step before. And many of them have already returned to X and re-activated their accounts. This isn't an endorsement for this platform; just wondering why no other platform has succeeded in replacing it.
@dan_jeffries1 Daniel Jeffries on x
Idiotic move by a usually great organization that I've long admired. This is just stupid nonsense.
@burnhamdc James Burnham on x
The electronic freedom nonprofit leaving the only platform that is fundamentally committed to free speech does not make sense. And the below thread purporting to explain this decision does not explain it. @EFF, you're welcome to call us if you'd like to discuss.
@stephenfleming Stephen Fleming on x
This is a childish tantrum. I thought better of EFF when I worked with them to stop the Clipper Chip. But that was a long time ago.
@octal Ryan Lackey on x
This post (by a former EFF person that I know/friends with) is probably the best summary of what happened to EFF: https://news.ycombinator.com/ ... [image]
@jeffjohnroberts Jeff Roberts on x
This is sad to see. The EFF has been part of the fray for as long as I've covered tech. I'm not a fan of many of the changes on this platform, but it remains the beating heart of tech news and debates. This choice feels more cowardly or lazy than principled.
@katiemiller Katie Miller on x
This isn't an airport, there's no need to announce your departure.
@vxunderground @vxunderground on x
I don't understand this take. The EFF is leaving X because, according to them, they dislike how content is “walled” within one organization, instead emphasizing the importance of something like Mastodon and the Fediverse where you are in more control of your data. While this
@scobleizer Robert Scoble on x
@EFF Stupid move.
@geoffmanne Geoffrey Manne on x
Given the trivial costs of multihoming (at least for posting; monitoring and responding are a little more costly, but not that much) this can only be a political statement. But it's one that cuts directly against EFF's stated mission. It's just partisanship.
@nikitabier Nikita Bier on x
Whoever is advising @EFF on social strategy should be fired. Their reach on their X account is 13.3x larger than on their Instagram account—and on 228x larger than their TikTok account. If they want their foundation to have an impact on the global conversation, the only place i…
@xfreeze @xfreeze on x
These morons have absolutely no clue what they're talking about. they claim 𝕏 is the problem, but clearly have zero understanding of how opaque and censor-heavy the alternative platforms actually are This dramatic ‘grand exit’ thread is hilarious The truth is they just hate
@scobleizer Robert Scoble on x
It is true. Back then Twitter overly pushed big accounts. Since taking over X has been playing up smaller accounts a lot more. I see it in the tech world which has very little to do with politics. Although a group did leave due to that.
@jonoringer Jon Oringer on x
hey @EFF why don't you admit the real reason? and if you could send back the donations I made over the years that would be great.. because that $$$ clearly went to a cause i didn't support. 👋
@binarybits Timothy B. Lee on x
Quitting Twitter while staying on TikTok is really something.
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
@EFF The 𝕏 algorithm is open source and updated frequently, but you do not point to any alleged bias or suggest corrections, choosing instead to leave for platforms that everyone knows have a strong bias for political correctness, which just another way of saying “lies”. You used
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
EFF exits Twitter stage right. Good on them. I get it.
@nic_carter Nic Carter on x
I get it. The algo changed and it can be tricky to navigate that But it does seem like the EFF just got worse at posting [image]
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on bluesky
The EFF is finally leaving X. It looks like I'm a trailblazer because I did this way back in 2024 and deleted my account.
@caseynewton Casey Newton on bluesky
Posting on X is for people who have humiliation fetishes [embedded post]
@caulfieldtim Timothy Caulfield on bluesky
“...X post today receives less than 3% of the views a single tweet delivered seven years ago.” — @eff.org is Leaving X: www.eff.org/deeplinks/20... Increasingly, X is a place of lies, rage and hate. Very little meaningful engagement. I hope more media, institutions, and poli…
@bsky.app @bsky.app on bluesky
More and more organizations, publishers, and creators are abandoning legacy platforms that throttle their reach. Bluesky gives them a direct line to their audiences, without suppression or gatekeeping bsky.app/profile/eff.... [embedded post]
@karlbode.com Karl Bode on bluesky
excellent choice! — ethical people, organizations, and journalists should not be using a right wing propaganda website owned by an overt white supremacist — I genuinely don't care what elaborate scaffolding you've constructed to justify it to yourself [embedded post]
@OpenMediaOrg@mastodon.social @OpenMediaOrg@mastodon.social on mastodon
Thrilled to welcome our colleagues at @eff to the “leaving X” team! We made the same difficult choice at the start of this year, and haven't looked back once. — If you want genuine organic engagement with real people, Mastodon and its peers are the place to be. — https://www…
r/EnoughMuskSpam r on reddit
After almost twenty years on the platform, The Electronic Frontier Foundation is leaving X/Twitter
r/eff r on reddit
EFF is Leaving X
r/pwnhub r on reddit
EFF is leaving X
r/musked r on reddit
EFF is Leaving X
r/BlueskySocial r on reddit
EFF is Leaving X
@quackersncheese @quackersncheese on bluesky
Why should news media and businesses leave X? EFF has solid data from their experience: — “An X post today receives less than 3% of the views a single tweet received seven years ago.” — techcrunch.com/2026/04/09/e... [image]
r/hackernews r on reddit
EFF is leaving X
@joetidy @joetidy on bluesky
Electronic Frontier Foundation is quitting X - but not for the normal ‘moral/ ethical’ reasons we often hear about. The actual reason is even more interesting - they don't see it as worth it anymore. The platform doesn't get the reach they used to get. www.theverge.com/tech/909…
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
Figures
r/Twitter r on reddit
EFF is Leaving X

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